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You Suck at Excel - Joel Spolsky (Reupload)

Cool Bug Facts · tutorial · Watch on YouTube

Productivity & self-improvementData science & statisticsSoftware (other)

What it is

A reupload of Joel Spolsky's talk teaching spreadsheet users the Excel features they are probably missing, such as keyboard navigation, named ranges, tables and lookups. The original disappeared and this copy comes from the Wayback Machine.

Why Hacker News recommends it

HN commenters call it an internet classic that makes you a more proficient Excel user, and note it is still relevant despite predating newer functions like XLOOKUP.

  • 7 people recommended it
  • 6 different months
  • 0 strong recommendations
  • first 2024, last 2026

What HN commenters said

  1. “His Excel-lence also recommends this”

    Excel tips video recommended for better usage

    tichiian, 2024-05 · Recommendation · in “Pyspread – Pythonic Spreadsheet”

  2. “There's a fun video called You Suck at Excel by Joel Spolsky”

    Fun video to improve spreadsheet skills

    mbforbes, 2024-05 · Recommendation · in “Improvements to data analysis in ChatGPT”

  3. “will turn you into a more proficient user of Excel.”

    Makes you a more proficient Excel user

    surfingdino, 2024-06 · Recommendation · in “The Microsoft Excel superstars throw down in Vegas”

  4. “I really like the super light introduction here from Joel Spolsky”

    Light introduction to Excel's data table power

    egeozcan, 2024-10 · Recommendation · in “Show HN: Tenno – Markdown and JavaScript = a hybrid of Word and Excel”

  5. “here some internet classic on this topic: You Suck at Excel - Joel Spolsky”

    Internet classic on how to really use Excel

    aleph_minus_one, 2025-04 · Recommendation · in “Lessons from open source in the Mexican government”

  6. “That video was before the introduction of xlookup”

    Classic Excel video, though predating xlookup

    imurray, 2026-06 · Recommendation · in “Alternatives to Nested If Function”

  7. “is more than a decade old but still relevant”

    Still-relevant Excel talk

    Arainach, 2026-08 · Recommendation · in “My Rules for Using Spreadsheets”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: excel, spreadsheets, joel spolsky, data tables, keyboard shortcuts

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